Isaiah: A Message of Our Times and of Eternity
Doesn’t it Make Sense to Live God’s Way?

Text: Isaiah 2:1-22

Before we get into the message, we need to try to get an idea of the question that dominates this text.  It has to do with our knowledge of the future and the choices that we make.

ILLUSTRATION #1

Suppose you are an NBA player, and as a result of the new agreement that has been reached you can choose to play for any of the current 30 teams: Lakers, Timberwolves, Thunder, etc.  And let us also suppose that before you made your choice, you were given certain knowledge of which team was going to win the championship.  Nothing could alter the outcome.  Twenty-nine teams will end the season as losers, and only one team will be crowned the champion, and you have certain knowledge of which team that will be.  Would you elect to play for one of the twenty-nine losers, or would you elect to play for the winning team?

I could describe a number of scenarios, each with a similar choice, and the only way for us to deliberately choose the way that leads to certain death or loss is that we must convince ourselves that losing isn’t that bad, or dying isn’t so terrible.  And when we add eternal perspectives, we must convince ourselves that God doesn’t mean what He says, or He won’t be able to do what He said He would do, or He will make an exception of me, or some other, similar delusion concerning God. 

That is the reality that runs through this text.  It requires us to ask: “When you know the outcome of a choice you will make, why would you choose that which cannot succeed? 

1.     Isaiah chapter two begins a lengthy prophecy that does not reach its conclusion until chapter four.

2.     It reinforces the same truth with which the previous chapter ended: “If Israel did not find her hope in the Lord, Jehovah, she had no hope at all.”

On the basis of what we read in this chapter, it is a safe assumption that Isaiah saw no great change in Judah and Jerusalem as a result of his first message.  Instead of turning to the Lord and determining to live His way, Israel continued to go their own way.

·         Unfaithfulness to the Lord – spiritual adultery

·         Inhospitable to righteousness – when righteousness sought lodging in the cities of Judah, it was met with murder.

·         Impurity – the regarding of immoral and indecent behavior as acceptable

·         Political corruption

There was no evidence that anyone had taken his first message to heart.  However, Isaiah was not discouraged.  Faithful man of God that he was, he tried again to call his people to forsake their own ways and to return to the ways of the Lord.  In order to accomplish that, Isaiah offers three propositions.  Two are addressed to Israel.  Surprisingly one is addressed to God, a reminder to Israel that he was not speaking on his own behalf.  He was not giving them his message.  He was giving them a message from God. 

I.             The Future Glory of God’s Kingdom

A.    The focus of this prophecy is still Judah and Jerusalem – the Jewish people – verse 1

Why should we care what God says about Israel?

Paul Chappell, Understanding the Times

“Israel is a critical component in God’s global plan – a key piece of the prophetic puzzle.  In many ways, Israel’s news marks the dates on God’s prophetic calendar.”

POINT: Prophetically, as goes Israel, so goes the world.  Israel may have rejected Jesus Christ, but God is not done with Israel yet.

B.    The time-frame of this prophecy is the last days.

1.     Technically, it is the last days of the last days. 

2.     It concerns the days of Christ’s millennial kingdom.

a.     When Jesus will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords

b.    The Jews living at that time will receive him as their Messiah and experience a national revival

c.     At that time, Jesus will establish His Kingdom on the earth, with Jerusalem as His earthly capital.

1)     Verse 2 – God’s answer to a world that today clamors for religious pluralism – the idea that all religions lead to God, that no one way may be considered the only way

2)     In that day, there will be only one world religion – the worship of God, centered on the House of God, the Temple, rebuilt on the Mountain of the Lord – Mount Zion. 

C.    In that day, there will only be one way on the earth – God’s way.

1.     Everyone will be taught His ways – verse 3

2.     Everyone will walk in His paths – verse 3

3.     There will only be one law – His Law – verse 3

a.     God’s Word will be the last word on every issue of life. 

(No more legalized abortion.  No more legalized same-sex unions.  No more open publication of pornography.  Nothing will be tolerated that goes against God’s Word)

b.    HE (God alone) will judge among the nations

c.     Weapons of war will be re-manufactured into implements for farming

d.    NO ONE will learn the ways of war anymore. 

That’s what it will be like when Jesus reigns upon earth, and that day is coming. 

1)     God’s plans and purposes will not fail. 

2)     Everyone aligned with His ways will be on the winning side

3)     Everyone pursuing their own ways will be on the losing side.

ISAIAH’S FIRST PROPOSITION:

In view of God’s coming Kingdom, and knowing that all the nations of the world will live in accordance to His ways, doesn’t it make sense to live in the light of His Kingdom now.

“Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD!”  Why keep going your own way when you know that His Way will triumph in the end?

Isaiah was attempting to communicate to them that things were not hopeless.  They still had an opportunity to repent.  They did not have to continue on their present course of national destruction.  The same love and grace that God will show to the Jews in the last days was available to them on that day. 

Again, it is apparent that Isaiah’s invitation goes unheeded.  No one moves.  No one shows the slightest indication of change.  So, in verse 6, Isaiah breaks out in a public prayer, prompted by:

II.           Judah’s Persistent Stubbornness - Verses 6-9

A.    What Isaiah Said about His people

1.     They had been forsaken by God – Verse 6

2.     They didn’t deserve to be forgiven by God – Verse 9

These are ominous words.  They remind us that there is a limit to the patience and grace that God will extend to a people who persist to reject God’s way and go their own way. 

  

B.    What Isaiah saw that moved him to such passion.

1.     He saw a people who had turned from the ways of God to the ways of the pagan world

a.     Replenished from the east

1)     Replenish: to fill a void

2)     The more Israel turned away from God, the more empty their lives became. 

3)     Instead turning back to God, they turned to the “east” – the pagan nations that stretched eastward away from them – to fill their empty hearts (The “wisdom,” ways, philosophies, entertainment, etc. of the pagan nations).

b.    Soothsayers like the Philistines – as they searched for the answers to life, and protection from life’s “evils,” they turned to astrology, witchcraft, charms, etc.

c.      Please themselves in the children of strangers (foreigners, pagans from the surrounding nations)

1)     They no longer desired for their children to grow up and be “good Jews.”

2)     It was more important to them that their children “fit in” – that they would look, and talk, and act like “everybody else.”

2.     He saw a people who put their hope in just about anything other than God

a.     Prosperity: silver, gold, treasures. 

“If we can only have a good, strong economy, everything will be alright.”

b.    A strong military: full of horses/chariots

c.     Idolatry (the work of their own hands) – Instead of worshiping God His way, they worshiped God as they had imagined Him to be. 

PROPOSITION TWO (delivered indirectly)

In view of your stubborn refusal to turn from your sins, just how much further do you think you can go and still expect God to offer you His grace, His forgiveness? 

NOTE: That is a good question for America to ask today. 

III.          The Coming Day of Judgment – Verses 10-22

A.    The conflict Isaiah saw – Verses 10-11

1.     It was between the Glory of God and the Pride of Man

a.     Verse 10 – glory of His majesty

b.    Verse 11 – lofty looks … haughtiness of men

2.     In this collision, the glory of God is the iceberg and human pride is the Titanic.

It is a collision that God wins.

a)     Verse 11 – God alone shall be exalted

b)    Verse 17 – The Lord alone shall be exalted

God wins.  Prideful men lose.

B.    The time frame of this prophecy – the day of the LORD of hosts

Lord of Hosts = Supreme Being, God who is Lord over everything and everyone.

1.     This takes place in the Tribulation period – a day in which men, for their rejection of God, will face unspeakable judgments.

2.     These judgments are so terrible that men will seek to hide from God in the holes of the rocks

3.     They will fling away their idols and try to seek shelter from the awful wrath of God, when He ariseth to shake the earth terribly. 

Revelation 6 describes that day, the day when the earth realizes that when they put their trust in the Antichrist, they sided with the wrong man.  In a futile effort to escape judgment, they will hide “in the dens and in the rocks of mountains” and plead with the mountains to fall upon them, because they will be terrified of “the wrath of the Lamb.”

Such will be the end of man’s attempt to make his own way triumph above God’s ways.  In the end, God wins.  His glory fills the earth.  And all the ways of man will be destroyed in the flames of God’s judgment.  

PROPOSITION #3

In view of God’s Judgment Day, knowing that man and his prideful ways are doomed, doesn’t it make sense to turn from your way and turn back to God’s ways?  

Conclusion

Let me ask you a question.  If you could go back in time with the knowledge you have now, and you could warn people not get aboard the Titanic, would you be fighting against their happiness, or for their happiness?  You would be fighting for their happiness.  You would be attempting to rescue them from certain misery and destruction. 

That is what God is doing here.  He is fighting for our happiness our joy.

1)     In terms of our salvation – to save us from an eternal hell, calling us to give up our own ideas about being saved and be saved His way, which is the only way.

2)     In terms of our future rewards – to save us from standing at the Judgment Seat of Christ with the realization that we KNEW God’s Way would win and our own way would fail, and yet we chose to “suffer loss,” to live with the pain of regret

God is saying to US, Christians, let the promise of future hope – which is sure and certain – be the foundation of our present life of faith.  He is saying to the lost, let the fear of future judgment turn you to Christ.

 

Thank You for visiting this site. If we can be of help in any way, please do not hesitate to ask. Much Blessings on you and yours, Dr. Joseph A.Carson Northland Baptist Ministries